Niner

Addie-babe is a whoppin' 9 months old. That is only 3 months away from a year. She is definitely growing up way too fast!

But I am loving all the hilarious new things that she can do. Her personality keeps growing every day and she has become such an independent, stubborn, loving, curious little girl.

At nine months (technically 9 1/2 months), her stats are:

Height: 27 3/4 in (50%)

Weight: 16 lbs 1 oz (5%)

Head Circ: 16 3/4 in (10 %)

Still just as tall and skinny as ever. 

She has three teeth (all on the bottom), and a couple more that will be coming in soon.

Among many things, at nine months she can:

Wave "hello" and "bye-bye"

Stand by herself for a second or two

Drain her sippy cup of juice

Pop the lid off of her "puffs" container with her teeth (i feel like this is so genius, haha)

Turn book pages one by one by putting her pointer finger between the pages (too cute)

Suck through a straw

Open and close doors

Whine in a certain way to let me know when she wants something

Walk along anything, including walls

Eat big people food like sweet potatoes, bananas, peas, green beans, watermelon, eggs, etc. and LOVES it

She:

Has discovered how to unroll toilet paper

Has learned that there is a mini-pool inside the toilet that is just for her fun

Has learned that there are certain cupboards I'd rather she not get into, and she heads straight for them

Likes to eat the fireplace soot

Loves bathtime more than anything...in fact, she just LOVES water

Is attached to her mama, especially since our Utah trip

Plays hide-and-seek in her crib. When we first come in to get her from a nap, she gives a huge grin, then drops and crawls away from us into the nearest corner to "hide" from us and happily pumps her legs until we finally pick her up.

Shares, but only when she is feeling ultra generous. She will take Jon's glasses, give 'em a little suck, then hand them back to him (never releasing them from her grip) so he can slobber a little, and then she takes them back for her own suck.

Loves to be chased, whether by Jon or I or by a stuffed animal, it makes her squeal and giggle more than anything else.

Our most favorite characteristic of Addie's (or the one that makes us laugh the hardest) is that she is totally
destructive.

If you put her blocks back in her bucket, no matter where she is, she will stop what she is doing to completely empty the bucket. Usually she accomplishes this by dumping it over her face.

If you build a tower, she will do whatever it takes to get to it, and level it until not a single block is on top of another.

If you pop up the animals on one of her toys, she will stay there until she has successfully put them all back down into their places. Usually she accomplishes this by slamming the toy upside down, effectively shutting each animal back in its place with minimal exertion. How smart is she?

If there is a container of anything or a stack of anything, it can no longer exist. This includes: Easter baskets filled with eggs, folded laundry stacked higher than two items, DVDs on a shelf, tupperware in a larger container, clothes in a drawer, clothes in a suitcase, items in a decor basket, cords in a drawer, food on a shelf, etc. You get the idea.

I sometimes feel that my baby is allergic to order. She is not content unless ordered things are put out of place. 

While it can be frustrating at times, it makes me laugh more often than not.

This girl is the joy of our lives. We love being her parents. We love how special and unique she is.

 Love you, big girl. 

Homeward Bound

Do any of you remember that movie? Homeward Bound, with the talking animals. We just watched it the other day at my friend's house. Anyway...off the subject.  

We just spent over a week and a half with my family back home in Utah and managed to do a million things. With those millions of things came millions of pictures, so be prepared for an overload. Of highlight are the following: 

Seth returned from his mission to Paris, France and came back more stylish than any of us.

The best picture I got...I was obviously too excited. 

Watched Conference with family: the Randalls, the Berretts, and the Frandsens. 

Playing with cousin Taygen during Conference. 

Distracting everyone during Conference. 

 Had a mother/daughter/granddaughter night out with good food and a chic flic accompanied by buckets of tears. 

Addie got her third tooth and her first black eye which can be seen in many of the pictures (the first of many to come, I'm sure).

Reunited with a best friend, Nicole, and introduced my adorable baby. Not to mention some good shopping and eating was done. 

Watched Jake's soccer games and froze at McKay's lacrosse games.

Visited with Great Great Grandma and Grandpa Frandsen...LOVE them!!

Window shopped at the new City Creek Center in Salt Lake City with aunts and cousins. 

Sleeping peacefully after a full day of shopping. 

Returned to my old teaching grounds at OJHS and loved being with old friends and wonderful past students.

With Krystin, my best friend from OJHS!

Road tripped to St. George with the family and was reunited with my husband...finally!

Hiked to petroglyphs.

bumming a ride with McKay

she has learned how to "cheese"

Addie discovered she loves to run, or at least run with you. Check out her gleeful face!

Don't judge...the only thing that would make her happy was to hold and suck on a rock. 

the hiking clan

Hung out with a majority of the Frandsen family, including recently returned Elder Dallin Frandsen.

Had a delicious family BBQ and killer kickball game.

Hunted for Addie's first Easter eggs.

check out that face: pure determination...and a little bit frustration that the egg is unyielding to her little gums

Hiked Fossil Canyon, which involved some serious boulder-scaling.

Awwwwwwwwwww....

I told Katie I was taking a pic of her bum and she told me that I probably should since she's the only one in her family who even has one. hehe. 

jon climbing up a difficult side canyon to get to a hidden meadow

Went on a bike/long boarding adventure, which included stealing construction cones to create an obstacle course.

yeah...we're hard core like that

Enjoyed Easter Sunday and Easter dinner before heading home to Arizona.

papa reading to Addie during Easter Sunday

Easter Outfit! This girl is too dang cute!

We're happy to be home, but we had a blast while we were away!!

Separation Anxiety

Yes, Addie has developed a slight stranger danger, but this anxiety is mine. Jon and I will have been apart for eight nights tomorrow night. It's the longest we've ever been apart in our 4 years of marriage and it's pretty much the most awful and annoying thing ever. 

But I have found there is truth in the phrase "absence makes the heart grow fonder."

I know the many selfless things that Jon does for me, but being away makes me even more aware of how much I rely on him, for physical help with Addie or daily tasks, but also just as a mental and emotional strength. That man just makes me laugh. I am so grateful that I NEED my husband and that he is so wonderful a husband that I can't stand to be away from him. Even if it is only for eight nights. Love him. 

Only 49 hours and 30 minutes till I get to see him again.

By the way, Adalyne and I have managed to have some fun during this separation...a post is to come with our Utah adventures. 

Basketball and Prayer

A group of grown men is huddled in the middle of the court. They are black, white, Hispanic, short, tall, strong, skinny, religious, non-religious, single, married. That doesn't matter. They stand together to pray. Someone offers a quick but sincere prayer for their friend. Some of the men cry. 

Two days ago, Jon was playing basketball at our gym. He plays with the same group of men, three times a week every morning. As usual, the game was heated, fouls were abundant. One player fouled another player, "Q", going for the lay-up and for some reason, though there was plenty of time and space, Q never put his hands up to prevent himself from running into the padded wall behind the hoop. Jon was sitting right there, stretching, getting ready to play. Q hit the wall at full force, bent over, with the top of his head and neck taking the full impact. He collapsed and in a moment, began to seizure in Jon's lap.  Jon got someone to call 911 and tried to help Q as much as he could. 

The paramedics arrived quickly, got the situation under control and began testing his limbs.

 Q couldn't feel anything beneath his neck. 

The man who did the initial fouling was against the wall, crying. Q was his close friend. He called Q's wife to tell her what had happened and offered to watch their two children while she headed to the hospital.  

As Q left in the ambulance, the men huddled together. These are men who, from Jon's descriptions, spew profanities from their mouths, yell and scream at each other, and occasionally play dirty basketball. Yet, they gathered together in the middle of the court to pray, standing shoulder to shoulder with arms interlocked. 

It seems, that no matter what your background or lifestyle, no matter what level of religiosity you claim, there are times when you cannot deny our need for our Heavenly Father. No matter what circumstances we are in, when we need Him, He is there, accessible. And it amazed me that a knowledge of our Heavenly Father could bring these very different men together on a basketball court to pray for comfort and for their friend Q's well-being. 

Unfortunately, Q is not doing well. In the past two days, he has been on the verge of coma several times. He currently needs a ventilator and breathing tube to breathe. He has regained some feeling in his arms but nothing anywhere else. He will undergo surgery today that will hopefully help him breathe more on his own, but the situation is very critical. 

Jon went to ball today and these men started their morning game huddled together again in prayer for Q. It is such a heartbreaking, yet powerful image, to see how man can so easily be humbled and how much we all need and rely on our Father. 

While this is a terrible tragedy and we will continue to pray and fast for Q's recovery, I am grateful for the reminder that I know where I come from. That I know my Divine heritage. That we have a loving, compassionate Father in Heaven who loves us and whose heart breaks with us as we are humbled. And that we can have access to His comfort and love through such a simple thing as prayer. 

Episode Four: I Hate Airports

After six weeks of living in Arizona, Jon's company sent him (and us) to New York for a leadership and technology training session they call BIM University. The problem: the training session was two months long.

They very kindly allowed Addie and I to join Jon out East and they generously put us up in a Hilton hotel suite/apartment for the two month duration. It was a serious cross-country move. How do you pack lightly (so you can take everything with you on the plane with minimal costs) for two months when you have a two month old baby? She would change so much and need so many things that I couldn't even anticipate...Needless to say, it was extremely stressful since I would unpack one box from our recent Arizona move only to pack it up in the New York-destined suitcases.

We arrived at the Phoenix airport on Friday, August 19th loaded with two over-stuffed suitcases, a giant Home Depot moving box filled with a baby swing (it was the only way Addie would sleep at the time), an over-sized duffel bag stuffed with the pack-n-play, a stroller, a carseat and base, two crammed backpacks, a laptop bag, and a diaper bag. I felt like we had baggage coming out of my ears.

Needless to say, we were a mess and we were late. Really late. We frantically searched for a cart machine that could help us tote our massive load inside and the only one we could find was broken. I ran inside with baby in stroller to find some help and by the time all of our stuff was loaded into the ticket line, the automated screen was telling me that I could no longer check my baggage.

Tears instantly filled my eyes. After the stress of just getting to the airport, this was more than my strained emotions could handle.  We lugged our heap of luggage to the front desk to speak with someone other than the computer and they confirmed the worst details...we would not be allowed to board our 4:45 flight because we missed the baggage check-in window by 7 mins...7 FREAKING minutes. The 7 minutes we spent trying to locate a working cart machine. 

They wouldn't allow any exceptions...They offered to put us on the next flight the next morning. We were supposed to be in the Salt Lake temple at that time for one of our best friend's weddings. That would not work. We were put on stand-by for the 8:45 flight and told to sit tight.

So we sat tight with our baby for over 4 hours. During this lovely waiting period, I was told multiple times that my baby was hungry by random strangers. What is it with other people telling me that my slightly fussing baby is hungry? They must have missed me nursing my baby in the middle of the airport just ten minutes ago where Addie flung open the nursing cover several times.

 Finally, we found out that we could board the 8:45 flight. Hallelujah!

What started as an absolutely awful night ended so well. Addie was a miracle baby on her first flight...so perfect. We got to stop in Utah for two nights to see our families and friends, catch up, and be there for Nate and Meg's beautiful wedding! It was such a perfect trip!

Then, we were off officially to New York. This flight went without a hitch and again, another perfect flight with Addie.  We finally touched down in New Jersey on a wet, rainy day and headed to the Hilton.

The updates:
Episode Three: Motherhood
Episode Two: Home Away From Home
Episode One: The Blessing

Episode Three: Motherhood

I can't even begin to describe the feelings that I have had since becoming a mother, but these were some of my thoughts from the first months of motherhood. 

I never knew how truly difficult it was going to be. 

They tell you that you will be tired, but I have never experienced such complete exhaustion. An exhaustion that was the culmination of a 52 hour labor process; a two-night stay in the hospital with a hungry newborn who struggled to breastfeed; the newborn who can't sleep longer than an hour because she is so tiny and her tummy is so tiny that she is eternally hungry; a newborn who doesn't understand that the sun means being awake and the dark means sleeping; a newborn who is so DANG cute that instead of sleeping you stay awake to watch her sleep; an eternal list of to-do's that began the day she was born and never seems to get smaller; and the constant thinking about her was entirely draining...

They tell you that breastfeeding can sometimes be difficult but it is "natural."

But I never knew that for something so "natural" it is anything but easy. There were so many nights full of hopeless tears and mascara-stained pillows because of this "natural" process.  I can remember grasping for that month-old mark, holding to the reassurances that we would be "pros and this whole thing will be so much easier." And I remember turning to Jon on that month mark, still worrying about whether she was latching, whether she was getting enough, whether she was getting too much, whether it had been long enough between feedings, whether I should switch sides, whether she was choking, whether this and whether that...

Everything...EVERYTHING...was SO much harder than I had ever imagined. 

Yet it was, is, also so much sweeter than I had ever dreamed.

I feared that I wouldn't connect with this little girl, that I would revolt at this new way of life that revolved around her. But I love her so much. It is true that she has redefined me as a person, but I love the new me. I love her crazy. I love that she is a little piece of me and Jon and that she is a sort of representation of our love and dedication to each other as husband and wife. I love knowing that I get to spend every day with her to watch her grow and learn and make mistakes. I love her little personality that is already exhibiting itself and I love how much I can tell she loves me. 

When Adalyne was just three weeks old, I was holding her snuggled up against me, staring into those serious, unwavering eyes, feeling such an overwhelming love for her when she slowly smiled. It was such a deliberate smile, never breaking eye contact, her entire face lit up by this gentle giant smile that I had never seen before and I felt so strongly that she knew who I was and that she could feel all the love I felt for her. My eyes pricked with tears.  It was one of the most special moments of being a mother I have had...that smile was meant for me, her mother. It was such a tender mercy and the feeling of love that enveloped that moment will never be forgotten. 

So while it is SO much harder than I have ever imagined, it is so  worth  it.

Updates:

Episode Two: Home Away From Home

Episode One: The Blessing